9/24 Gnocchi

I never really understood the fuss over gnocchi until I had to make some at Gharibaldi's and then enjoyed some of the finest gnocchi I've had at Bouchon. There, they are made using pate a choux, a light french pastry dough usually reserved for profiteroles, eclairs and gougeres. However when used for gnocchi, the results make you wonder why you'd waste it on anything else. However, last night my goal was to recreate the traditional potato gnocchi recipe I'd learned at Gharibaldi's from Chef Sasaki. He in turn had learned it from Keller when he worked at the French Laundry. Sasaki was as fanatical about how gnocchi should be prepared as I'd imagine Keller to be at his own restaurant.

The potatoes have to be russets or another starchy variety and they have to be baked - not boiled. Baking them, keeps them drier, and that means you need less flour to make the dough. Once fully baked you spoon out the flesh of the potatoes -but not all the flesh! The outermost flesh has become too dry and hard while baking - using it would ruin the final product. Now pass the flesh through a ricer and add flour and egg yolks - no egg whites, like some other recipes called for. Does this make them less healthy? Of course it does, but I don't think an extra egg yolk or two will kill me. Now this is where the dish can all go wrong. Mixing the ingredients has to happen fast and gently. You want to cut the eggs and flour into the potatoes, not kneed it. This keeps the dough light and fluffy. Now you're almost in the clear, you just need to roll the dough out into 1/2" round snakes and cut them into small pieces with a dough cutter. Arrange all the gnocchi on the backside of a cookie sheet - this makes it easier to dump them into SALTED water. For the love of god don't forget the salt! ah the memories... Once they're in the water, they will quickly rise to the top when they are ready. Fish them out and dump them immediately into ice water to stop the cooking. There you have it, you can use them right away, preferably by searing them up in some butter, giving them some nice color along the way, or you can freeze them (individually - before throwing them together in a bag) to use later on.

Last night i served them with a quick lamb stew i made with shoulder steaks and tomato sauce. Sure everything took two hours to make, but it was well worth it, and now I have four more meals worth of gnocchi to look forward to :)